event
Wednesday 19 Mar 2014: Hot-Jupiter GCM intercomparison study: lessons learned (12PM)
Inna Polichtchouk - Queen Mary, London
Physics, 4th floor 12:00-13:00
Carefully testing general circulation models (GCMs) of extrasolar planets is important for understanding the physical properties of the atmospheres and for attaining confidence in the complex models themselves. This talk presents results of a detailed GCM inter-comparison study in which five models recently used to study hot extrasolar planet atmospheres (BOB, CAM, IGCM, MITgcm, and PEQMOD) are assessed under three test cases useful for assessing model convergence and accuracy. The models considered all solve the traditional primitive equations, but employ different numerical algorithms or grids (e.g., pseudospectral and finite volume, with the latter separately in longitude-latitude and ‘cubed-sphere’ grids). The test cases are chosen to cleanly address specific aspects of the behaviours typically reported in hot extrasolar planet simulations: 1) steady- state, 2) nonlinearly evolving baroclinic wave, and 3) response to fast timescale thermal relaxation. In particular, I will discuss the ability of the tested models to conserve axial angular momentum -- a fundamental quantity characterising the general circulation.